Contents

Life

Peach was born in New Zealand. He studied at Victoria University of
Wellington and was for a time co-editor of the Argot
literary magazine with his flatmates Dennis List and David Rutherford. He worked
as a fireman and as a hospital orderly in New Zealand before moving
to London in 1969. He became a teacher at the Phoenix School in Bow, East London, working there from 1969 until
his death 10 years later.[1].

Activism

Peach was an active member of the East London Teachers'
Association, a branch of the National Union of Teachers,
and became its president in the year before his death.[1] In
1974, he was charged with threatening behaviour after challenging a
local publican's refusal to serve black customers, but
acquitted.[1]

Peach became a campaigner and activist against far right and neo-Nazi
organisations. He attended a demonstration held by the Anti-Nazi
League outside the town hall in Southall on Monday 23 April 1979, St George's
Day, joining 3,000 protesters against a National Front meeting taking
place in the town hall that day, in the run-up to the 1979 UK general election. The demonstration
was attended by over 2,500 police, and became violent - over 40
people, including 21 police, were injured; 300 were arrested.[2] Peach
was knocked unconscious by police in a side street and died the
next day in Ealing hospital.[3] Another
demonstrator, Clarence Baker - a singer of the reggae
band Misty in
Roots, remained in a coma for
five months.[4]

Days after his death, 10,000 marched past the place where he
collapsed. Thousands also visited his body at "lying in state" at
the Dominion
Theatre, and thousands more attended his funeral.[5]

Inquest

A team of 30 detectives from the Metropolitan
Police, headed by Commander John Cass, conducted an
internal investigation of Peach's death, but the report of the
investigation was never published, and the coroner did not allow details to be submitted
as evidence at the inquest.
The inquest jury returned a
verdict of death by misadventure on 27 May 1980, prompting
Peach's girlfriend, Celia Stubbs, to claim the police constable who
allegedly administered the fatal blows had got off "scot-free".[7] She
continued to campaign for many years, unsuccessfully, for a public
inquiry into his death. Eleven witnesses said they had seen members
of the Metropolitan Police Special Patrol Group (SPG) hit
Peach.[8]
No one was ever charged, but it was said that he had fallen to a
blow from a rubberized police radio.[9] The
Metropolitan Police Service reached an out-of-court settlement in
1989 with Peach's brother.[8]
In June 2009, the Metropolitan Police
Authority unanimously decided to publish the original internal
police inquiry into Blair Peach's death by the end of the year.[10][11] The
Crown Prosecution Service is
reviewing the internal report and will advise police as to whether
any further action should be taken.[12]

Special
Patrol Group

An investigation by The Guardian newspaper revealed the
discovery of "unauthorised weapons" in SPG lockers in Barnes police
station (including a lead-weighted rubber cosh); the suspension of
members of the SPG; the growing of a beard by one SPG member when
he had been clean shaven on 23 April, and the shaving off of a
moustache by another who had sported one at the demonstration, when
SPG officers attended an ID parade; the refusal of another SPG
officer to attend an ID parade; the dry cleaning of uniforms before
they had been inspected. [13]